Cambridgeshire camels. I look upon this as a nickname, groundlessly fastened on this country men, perhaps because the three first letters are the same in Cambridge and camel. I doubt whether it had any respect to the fen-men stalking upon their stilts, who then, in the apparent length of their legs, do something resemble that beast. Fuller says, a camel is used proverbially, to signify an awkward, ungain animal; and as scholars are often rude in their deportment, it is presumed that the towns-men of Cambridge might be called camels.R.

Cambridgeshire oaks.Cantabrigia petit æquales, or æqualia. That is (as Dr. Fuller expounds it), either in respect of their commons, all of the same mess have equal share; or in respect of extraordinaries they are all [Greek], club alike; or in respect of degree, all of the same degree are fellows well met. The same degree levels, although of different age.R.

Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger. CL. W. Edington, Bishop of Winchester, was the author of this expression, who made this the reason of his refusal to be removed to Canterbury, though chosen thereunto. Indeed, though Canterbury be graced with an higher honour, the revenues of Winchester are greater. It is applicable to such who prefer a wealthy privacy before a less profitable dignity.R. Of course, this has ceased to be true. William de Edindon was Bishop of Winchester, 134666.

Cat after kind good mouse hunt. HE. Letter by F. A. touching the quarrel between Arthur Hall and Melch. Mallerie in 15756, repr. of ed. 1580 in Misc. Antiq. Anglic. 1816, p. 93. For neuer yet was good Cat out of kinde.Gascoignes Aduentures of Master F. I. (Works, by Hazlitt, i. 483). The phrase occurs in the interlude of Nice Wanton, 1560; and in the History of Jacob and Esau, 1568, we hareCat after kind will sweet milk lap.

Ch was bore at Taunton Dean; where should I be bore else? Somersetshire. That is a parcel of ground round about Taunton, very pleasant and populous (containing many parishes), and so fruitful, to use their own phrase, with the zun and zoil alone, that it needs no manuring at all. The peasantry therein are as rude as rich, and so highly conceited of their own country, that they conceive it a disparagement to be born in any other place.R.

That is, they must eat often, but little at a time. Often, because the body growing, requires much addition of food; little at a time, for fear of oppressing and extinguishing the natural heat. A little oil nourishes the flame; but a great deal poured on at once, may drown and quench it. A man may carry that by little and little, which, if laid on his back at once, he would sink under. Hence old men, who, in this respect also, I mean by reason of the decay of their spirits and natural heat, do again become children, are advised by physicians to eat often, but little at once.R. This adage is, I believe, not local. If I do not continually feede them, as the crow doth her brattes, twentie times in an houre, they will begin to waxe colde.Gascoignes Supposes, 1566 (Poems, by Hazlitt, i. 212).

Children and fools cannot lie. C.New Help to Disc., 1721, p. 135. The Dutch proverb hath it thus: You are not to expect truth from any one but children, or persons drunk or mad. In vino veritas, we know. Enfans et fols sons devins. Fr.R. In Lylys Endimion, 1591, Master Constable says: You know, neighbours, tis an old said saw, Children and fooles speake true.

Children to bed and the goose to the fire. I take it to mean that when the children are in bed, and the work done, the adults of the household are junketing. The goose hangs high is a common phrase for mirth and pasting, and indeed I remember being told by a Chinese scholar at Shanghai that the Chinese talk of being with the pig when they mean to express festivity. If he had known Elia, I should have thought it too good to be truebut he didntand was doubtless honest.R. H. Vose.

Chipperfield, in Herts, is a great cherry orchard; and in good seasons, the people are very sharp, if asked where from? and say, Chipperfield! Where dye think? But in years, when the yield has been poor, their spirits run low, and the reply is, Oh, Chipperfield, God help us!

Choose a horse in Smithfield, and a serving-man in Pauls. A man must not make choice of 3 things in 3 places. / Of a wife in Westminster, Of a servant in Paules, Of a horse in Smithfield / lest he choose a queane, a knave, or a jade.Robsons Choice of Change, 1585 (Triplicitie of Poetrie, pt. ii. No. 4).Falst. Wheres Bardolph?Page. Hes gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse.Falst. I bought him in Pauls, and hell buy me a horse in Smithfield; if I could get me a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.Henry IV., part ii. act i. sc. 2. This part of the present note was communicated to me by my excellent friend, the late Mr. H. Pyne. To conclude, they [the school-girls] learn nothing there befitting Gentlewomen, but onely to be so gentle at last, as commonly they run away with the first Serving-man or younger Brother makes love unto them: when their parents finde (to their cost) that all their cost was cast away, and their Husbands after a while find too, how to that old saying of choosing a Horse in Smithfield, and a Serving-man in Pauls, you might well add the choosing a wife out of one of these [village Schools], and you shall be fitted all alike.Flecknoes Enigmatical Characters, 1658, p. 45. As to the great antiquity of Smithfield as a place for the sale of horses, see Fitzstephens Account of London. (Antiq. Repert., 1807, i. 245.) See also an entry in Pepys under December 4, 1668. This proverb is apt to remind us of Cruikshanks Adventures of a Gentleman in search of a horse, 1857.

Cock-on hoop; our ancestors called that the cock which we call the spiggot, or perhaps they used such cocks in their vessels as are still retained in water-pipes; the cock being taken out and laid on the hoop of the vessel, they used to drink up the ale as it ran out without intermission (in Staffordshire, now called stunning a barrel of ale), and then they were Cook-on-hoop, i.e., at the height of mirth and jollity: a saying still retained.Blounts Dictionary, 1681, quoted by Brady (Var. of Lit. 1826).

Comparisons are odious. H. Heywoods Woman Kilde with Kindnesse, 1607, repr. 101. Toda comparacion es odiosa.Span.Foulweather. A my life a most rich comparison.Goosecappe. Neuer stirre, if it bee not a richer Caparison, then my Lorde my Cosine wore at tilt, for that was brodred with nothing but mooneshine ith water, and this has Samons in it, by heauen a most edible Copariso.Rudsbie. O odious thou woodst say, for Coparisos are odious.Foul. So they are indeede Sir Cut all but my Lords.Goos. Bee Caparisons odious Sir Cutt.: what like flowers?Rud. O asse they be odorous. Sir Gyles Goosecappe Knight, A Comedie, 1606, sign. G 2. This solecism has been sometimes ascribed to Mrs. Malaprop; but she, like the author of the Rivals, stood sponsor for some things which she did not utterthis among them.

This saying, which occurs with a considerable variation in Hudibras, arose from the Philip and Mary shilling, exhibiting the King and Queen with their effigies in very close juxtaposition. The type was introduced from Spain, where we find it on the coinage of Ferdinand and Isabella. The same design occurs also on the common little medalet of Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria. Butlers lines are:

Cousin Jockey. Cornwall.i.e., A Cornishman. All Cornishmen are jocularly said to be cousins. But the fact is that formerly the practice in this respect all over England was rather loose and vague, and in the Plumpton Correspondence, p. 104, we find a nephew, in a letter to his uncle, subscribing himself his loving cousin. See also ibid. 163. Thomas Greene of Stratford-on-Avon refers to Shakespeare as his cousin; but we do not so far know their relationship; and he does the same with others. To be cousin or first cousin with one is still recognised as a term of equivalent import to great intimacy.

Covetousness, as well as prodigality, brings a man to a morsel of bread. Qui tout convoite tout perd. Fr. And, Qui trop empoigne rien nestraint. He that grasps at too much, holds fast nothing. The fable of the dog is known, who, catching at the appearance in the water of the shoulder of mutton he had in his mouth, let it drop in, and lost it. Chi troppo abbraccia nulla stringa. Ital.R.

Barnard Castle, in Durham, is here pointed at, and the proverb is said to stigmatize the refusal of Sir George Bowes to fight with the rebels during the rising of the North in 1569. See N. and Q., 3rd S., ii. 232.

Cradle of security, the. This is mentioned by several of our old writers in a sort of proverbial way, and there was an early drama on the title. See my Manual of Old Plays, 1892, p. 53. Perhaps the most ancient reference to the Cradle of Security as a piece is in Greenes Arbasto, 1584.